Review of Dragon Tiger Gate (2006) by Jy S — 26 Jul 2007

Here we have another manga to movie adaptation as we've seen a lot nowadays coming from Asia. When you watch this you will also feel that this story could have come from a manga. I don't know if that is good or bad.

You decide.The story isn't anything to brag about and it is pretty slow and boring at times. It actually felt like two different movies to me. The first half seemed more upbeat and comical with some nice cinematography while the second half turned into more of a dark drama.

What this film does do pretty well though is give background on the 2 main characters of the film. I was actually hoping for the same thing for the Turbo character, but nothing really developed there except for a quick speech about his childhood.

The acting didn't really impress me at all. All the characters were pretty bland. I was expecting that from Donnie Yen, but not from everybody else. The only person that did a decent job was Shawn Yue as Turbo.

The action in here is fast and furious. What do you expect? Its choreographed by Donnie Yen. People that are looking for some good martial arts then this movie may suit your needs. Like most other movies the action is at the beginning and the end, with a couple small fights in the middle.

I love Donnie Yen's choreography and it left me wanting more in this film. He never ceases to amaze me with his speed and agility showing why he is my favorite martial artist. Shawn Yue also did some nice stuff with the nunchucks as well.

Since this is a manga adaptation you would expect to see a lot of CG in here. Well, there is a good amount of that and at times they look pretty good and at others they don't. So if you put that all together, you get nothing special.

This movie can be entertaining to a certain few, but others may find this boring and or stupid.